After Shocks

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

05/22/98:

Doctor Holderman seemed to be a bit baffled as he sat down
behind his desk. He stared at me long and hard as he
adjusting himself in the chair.

I could understand why as well, he was my normal doctor but
not the one who had done all the assorted exams on me over
the past few days. If I had to guess I would say he had just
gotten the results thrown into his lap and was told to give
them to me.

Setting the fold he had been carrying on the desk he opened
it. Flipping it open he said, "this is very interesting."

I shrugged. "To say the least."

He nodded to me. "All right, lets start at the most viable
changes. The color change in your eyes seems to be
permanent. Though there doesn't appear to be any other
effects to your eyes."

He flipped to the next page in the folder. "Some of your
muscle and bone structure have changed. First and foremost
there are your claws," I flexed my fingers a bit, felling
the tips poke out. It had discovered them the second day
when I accidentally cut open my arm scratching an itch.

The doctor continued on, not even noticing my twitch. "And
with them there is a whole new series of muscles and tendons
to control them independent of the placement of your fingers
or toes. Your toes have also expanding to sheath the larger
width of the lower set of claws."

He took in a breath and moved to the next page. "Your bones
appear to be more dense then before as well. I would say you
could now sustain a greater shock then a normal human. Along
with this some of your basic muscle tone has changed as
well. Your at least five times more agile then you were
before."

I nodded. I had already guessed that from how I seemed to
over correct for different actions.

Closing the folder Doctor Holderman sank back into his
chair. "The last change is the one that's the most
astonishing. Your left hand is now real with no signs at all
of the prosthetic."

Looking down at my hand I slowly rolled the fingers into a
fist. I frowned as I did so, of all the changes regaining my
real hand was the one that seemed to shock me the most. "You
are sure about this?" I asked, not looking up.

"Yes," He answered, "It's quite impressive. Even a stint in
a re-gen tank wouldn't turn out a new limb as well. If you
can learn how it was done I know the Council's Medial Guild
would cut off there own arms to test it."

I frowned, looking back up towards him. I didn't think
anyone would willing go through what I did to regrown
anything.

The doctor noticed this and nodded. Then picking the folder
up he handed it accost his desk to me. I took it from him as
I stood up, tucking it under my arm. "Any final comments?" I
asked.

He shook his head. "You may want to get some color contacts,
how your eyes are now is a bit disturbing."

I smiled. "Thank you, I'll think about it." I had no plans
to actually do so though. I had found being able to unsettle
people by just glaring at them a worth while trait.

Stepping out of his office I almost ran into Oria. She was
on her way to meet me and it was just luck we had both tried
to go through the door at the same time.

I chuckled, shaking my head as I stepped around her. "Good
timing." I comment.

She smirked. "It's a gift." She quickly changed tracks, "how
did it go? Any surprises?"

Smiling at her I started walking down the hallway. "Yes
actually. My hand is real."

She looked a bit shocked. "You mean your prosthetic is
gone?"

I nodded. "Yep."

Tilting her head to one side she looked at me. "Is this good
or bad?"

"Good I would imagine." I answered her, rubbing the back of
my neck. "So, what did you find out from Ken?"

Oria smiles. "He want's to tell you in person, not through
me."

I nodded. "That sounds like Ken. When are they going to let
him out of the hospital then?"

With a quick sweep of her paw she grabbed my arm and turned
me down a different hallway. "He sent me to get you while he
checked himself out. Were suppose to meet him at the exit."

I chuckled, I had seen him a couples days before and he was
still looking underfed. "There going to try and keep him
in." I commented.

"I know."

"This should be interesting to see then." I said as we keep
on walking. Ken had never been one to let people get in the
way of his work. Be it unraveling something as simple as a
light spell, or working me over to find out exactly how the
curse was being effected by the other spells that were on
me.

As we walked I looking down at myself, staring at the
pendant that my life was now bound too. The figure looked to
me as oriental dragon, or a wyrm. One in the same actually.

Picking the pendant up I held it between my fingers. From
what Ken had told me when I had visited him it was only a
the purest of luck then he even was able to make it.

Someone had given him it to try and pull apart a couple
years ago. The spells on it were complex and Ken said it
would have taken him years to undo them all. After a couple
months then man who owned the pendant came back to Ken and
explained that he had gone broke. He gave Ken the pendant as
payment and Ken just forgot about it after words.

All the spells Ken added to help me are based on the already
existing magic. If they break there is no way Ken could ever
duplicate them in under a year.

It was a strong incentive to make sure I followed his
instructions about becoming a lioness every thirty days. An
event I was not looking forward to.

At least through all this mess of problems and magic there
was some good news. While I was dead (no one can think of a
better term for that week) all the red-tape for the mansion
had finally been finished. As of a week and a half ago I
officially owned it and all the land it was on.

We had starting moving in a few days ago. Newt was almost
bouncing off the walls. She had already been out exploring
around the neighbor hood and made a couple of new friends
with kids her age.

Sora was happy with it was well. She had commandeered one of
the three 'great' rooms in the place for her bed room. It
was easily large enough for her spread her wings out and
relax.

I was happy to see that I had made a good choice in
locations.

"What took you so long?" Ken asked as we rounded the last
corner to the front entrance of the hospital.

"Just a winding trip, that's all." I answered.

Oria elbowed me in the ribs. "Winding my tail! We only took
five turns."

I shrugged my shoulder while throwing my hands up.

Ken smiled at us. He didn't look much better then last time.
He had more color to his skin now though his eyes were still
sunken back. He was looking healthier though, and that was a
good thing.

"So," I asked as we started walking again, this time back to
the t-port curtain to the old house. "Did you know why my
left hand is now real again?"

He nodded. "For the same reason you have claws. The spell
reformed you as much from your old form as from your real
DNA. The curse interfered with that and things reformed a
bit overlapped. I can try to fix it if you want."

Oria put her arm over my shoulder. "I don't think you
should. I like you with claws, it gives you some kind of
self defense. As for the rest I can't see a downside."

I nodded. "I'll consider it then. What about my eyes?"

"That's a bit more complicated." He said, "from what I can
tell it looks like the color change was caused by the
interaction of the curse with some underlying magic in your
system. I can't tell what it's from though, I think it might
be related to your sudden shift into a Fox a couple months
back."

"Ok..." I answered, trying to understand what he had said.

"There's more though," he continued. "Do you know how many
spells have been hanging around you?"

I shook my head.

"Right then," Ken said. "First you have Oriana's original
spell, the one that never went away. Then you have some
residue left over from both of the mind switch spells. Then
there is the underling magic that seems to be a part of the
others. Add to that the curse and you get an interesting
side effect."

"What type of side effect?" Oriana asked before I could.

"I've never seen anything quite like this," He answered.
"Magic seems to hang around on you when it's been caste. I'm
not sure but it looks like the different one's have formed
kind of a spiral around each each other, giving you some
kind of well spring of magical energy."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh really. Does this mean I can do
magic?"

He shook his head. "No, but yes. You can't create magic,
that's not part of who you are and nor will it ever be. But
if spells could be made for you to cast and to pull the
energy from you and not the multi-verse at large you could
do some powerful magic."

He shrugged. "Assuming such a thing could be done at all.
I've never seen anything like it before, it might take an
arch-mage or more to actually create the base of such
spells."

I chuckled. "So it's useless for me then."

"Basically." Ken answered.

Looking around the hallways I recognized about where I was
at. I pulled away from Oria. "You two keep going without me.
I need to talk to Jadith."

Oria glanced around and nodded, understanding. She had been
planing to talk to the elf on her own time but had yet to
manage it.

Ken didn't say anything, but he did nod to me. A sign that
he at least thought I was doing the right thing.

Taking off down a different hallway I left them behind.
Walking through the familiar halls I thought about my times
when I was living here with who ever wanted to stay with me.
Back before I ever meet Ted and he lent me the use of his
house.

Stopping in front of the door to my old apartment I gave it
a few quick knocks. There came some shuffling behind the
door and Jadith opened it up. As she saw me she seemed to
fold down on herself.

"Can I come in?" I asked.

She nodded, holding the door open and motioning me to come
inside. The small apartment was cluttered with a dozen or so
boxes, each about half way packed.

"Moving?" I asked as she closed the door behind me.

Walking past me she sat down on the one clean spot on the
couch. "Yes, I am."

"Coming to the new place then?"

She shook her head. "No... I'm going to find some place out
on my own. Page is going to let me stick with her until I
get my own place."

I sat down on the floor in front of her.

"I'm sorry Fox," she said, starting to cry. "I didn't mean
to do it. I was trying to save you."

I shook my head, placing my hand on her knee. "It wasn't
your fault."

She laughed. "How would you know?"

"Both Oriana and Sora said that your face was clean when you
pulled away. It just happened under your fingers. A minute
later and you would have been to late. A minute sooner at it
might have worked. You did not cause it."

She scoffed throwing her head back. "You don't understand
Fox! I'm a healer, do you know what that means!"

"First do no harm." I said, hoping it was the right quote.

She slumped down deeper into herself. "Yes, that's exactly
what it means. Even if it was an accident, even if it was
just plain bad luck I harmed you."

"Then I forget you for it." I said.

Jadith snapped her head up, starting at me with what was
almost hatred. "You still don't understand Fox... leave now
please, I have to keep packing."

I nodded, standing up and walking towards the door. "My
offer still stands." I said, not looking back at her. "You
will have a place at the new house, always."

She didn't answer me. I stood there for a minute though,
wafting for her to say something. Eventually I left and went
back home.

-----

This story is (c) 1998 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.